English Consonant Sounds

Consonant letters and their sounds

A consonant letter usually represents one consonant sound. Some consonant letters, for
example, c, g, s, can represent two different consonant sounds.
Letters

Sounds

Examples

[b]

baby, best, buy, bring, blind, absent, about, number, labor, robber, tub

[s]
[k]

center, cellar, cigarette, cinema, agency, notice;

cake, come, cucumber, clean, cry, scratch, act, panic

[d]

day, dear, die, door, duty, admire, hidden, lady, kind, ride, ended

[f]

fast, female, five, forest, fund, fry, flight, often, deaf, cuff

[g]
[j]
[zh]

game, gap, get, go, gun, great, global, giggle, ago, begin, dog, egg;
general, gin, giant, agent, suggest, Egypt, energy, huge, manage;
mirage, garage, beige, rouge

[h]
[-]

hair, help, history, home, hotel, hunt, behind, inherit;

hour, honor, honest, heir, vehicle, Sarah

[j]

jam, Jane, jet, jelly, Jim, jingle, joke, John, June, just

[k]

Kate, kind, kill, kilogram, sky, blanket, break, take, look

[l]

late, let, live, alone, close, slim, please, old, nicely, table, file, all

[m]

make, men, mind, mother, must, my, common, summer, name, form,
team

[n]

napkin, never, night, no, nuclear, funny, student, kindness, ton, sun

[p]

paper, person, pick, pour, public, repair, apple, keep, top, crisp

q (qu)

[kw]
[k]

quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;

unique, technique, antique, grotesque

[r]

rain, red, rise, brief, grow, scream, truck, arrive, hurry, turn, more, car

[s]
[z]

send, simple, song, system, street, lost, kiss, release;

cause, present, reason, realism, advise, always, is, was

[t]

task, tell, time, tone, tune, hotel, attentive, student, boat, rest

[v]

vast, vein, vivid, voice, even, review, invest, give, move, active

[w]

wall, war, way, west, wind, word, would, swear, swim, twenty, twist

[ks]
[gz]
[z]

exercise, exchange, expect, ex-wife, axis, fix, relax;

exam, exact, executive, exert, exist, exit, exult;
Xenon, Xerox, xenophobia, xylophone

[z]
[ts]

zero, zoo, horizon, puzzle, crazy, organize, quiz, jazz;

pizza, Mozart, Nazi, waltz

Note 1: The letter Y

The letter Y can function as a vowel or as a consonant. As a vowel, Y has the vowel sounds
[i], [ai]. As a consonant, Y has the consonant sound [y] (i.e., a semivowel sound), usually at
the beginning of the word and only in the syllable before a vowel.
[i]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;
[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;
[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.
1: Y
Y . , Y
[i], [ai]. , Y [y] (..
), .
[i]: baby, hurry, lyrics, mystery;
[ai]: by, try, rely, nylon, type;
[y]: yacht, yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you, young, Yukon.
Note 2: The letter W
The letter W represents the vowel sound [u:] in the diphthongs [au] and [ou]: now, how, owl,
brown; low, own, bowl.
2: W
W [u:] [au] [ou]: now, how, owl, brown; low,
own, bowl.

The -s/es ending of nouns and verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [s] ( : [s])

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [z] ( :
[z])
After the letters s, z, x, ch, tch, ge, dge, sh: [iz] ( s, z, x, ch, tch, ge, dge, sh: [iz])
[s]

[z]

[iz]

tapes [teips], streets

[stri:ts], parks
[pa:rks], chiefs
[chi:fs], myths [mis]

ribs [ribz], kids [kidz], legs [legz],

leaves [li:vz], clothes [klouz],
girls, games, cars, boys, pies
[paiz], cows [kauz], cities ['sitiz]

pieces ['pi:siz], roses ['rouziz],

prizes ['praiziz], boxes ['boksiz],
coaches ['kouchiz], bridges
['brijiz], dishes ['dishiz]

(he) grips [grips],

writes [raits], takes
[teiks], sniffs [snifs]

(he) robs [robz], reads [ri:dz],

digs [digz], saves [seivz], falls,
plans, swims, offers, plays, cries,
goes [gouz], copies ['kopiz]

(he) kisses ['kisiz], loses

['lu:ziz], relaxes, catches,
judges, manages, flashes,
washes, rouges

Pip's [pips], Kate's

[keits], Mike's
[maiks], Jeff's [jefs],
Seth's [ses]

Abe's [eibz], Fred's [fredz], Meg's

[megz], Olive's ['olivz], Ben's
[benz], Molly's ['moliz], Anna's

Chris's ['krisiz], Tess's ['tesiz],

Rose's ['rouziz], Liz's ['liziz],
Rex's ['reksiz], George's
['jo:rjiz]

The -ed ending of verbs

After a voiceless consonant: [t] ( : [t])

After a voiced consonant or vowel: [d] ( :
[d])
After the letters t, d: [id] ( t, d: [id])
[t]

[d]

[id]

stopped [stopt], liked

[laikt], coughed [ko:ft],
crossed [cro:st], released
[ri'li:st], reached [ri:cht],
washed [wosht]

robbed [robd], saved [seivd],

seized [si:zd], called [ko:ld],
planned, occurred, bathed
[beid], managed, played,
tried, studied

wanted ['wontid], hated

['heitid], counted ['kauntid],
started, needed [ni:did],
loaded ['loudid], folded,
added

Consonant combinations

Letters

Sounds

Examples

cc

[ks]
[k]

accent, accept, access, eccentric, accident;

accommodate, account, accuse, occur, acclaim

ch
tch

[ch]

chain, check, chief, choose, teacher, much, church;

kitchen, catch, match, watch, pitch, stretch

ch (Latin, Greek)
ch (French)

[k]
[sh]

character, chemical, Chris, archive, mechanic, technical,

ache;
champagne, charlatan, chef, chic, machine, cache

ck

[k]

black, pack, deck, kick, pick, cracker, pocket, rocket

dge

[j]

bridge, edge, judge, knowledge, budget, badger

gh

[g]
[f]
[-]

ghost, ghastly, Ghana, ghetto;

cough, enough, rough, tough, laugh;
though, through, weigh, neighbor, bought, daughter

gu

[g]
[gw]

guard, guess, guest, guide, guitar, dialogue;

language, linguistics, Guatemala, Nicaragua

ng

[]
[]+[g]

king, sing, singer, singing, bang, long, wrong, tongue;

finger, anger, angry, longer, longest, single

ph

[f]

phone, photograph, phrase, phenomenon, biography

qu

[kw]
[k]

quality, question, quite, quote, equal, require;

unique, technique, antique, grotesque

sc

[s]
[sk]

science, scissors, scene, scent, scythe;

scan, scandal, scare, score, Scotch, scuba

sch

[sk]
[sh]

school, scholar, scheme, schedule;

schnauzer, schedule

sh

[sh]

share, she, shine, shoe, fish, cash, push, punish

th

[]
[]

thank, thick, think, thought, thunder, author, breath, bath;

this, that, then, though, father, brother, breathe, bathe

wh

[w]
[h]

what, when, where, which, while, why, whale, wheel, white;

who, whom, whose, whole

xh

[ks]
exhibition;
[ks]+[h] exhumation, exhume, exhale;
[g]+[z] exhaust, exhibit, exhilarate, exhort, exhume, exhale

With silent letters

Sounds

Examples

bt, pt

[t]

doubt, debt, subtle; receipt, pterodactyl

kn, gn, pn

[n]

knee, knife, know; gnome, sign, foreign; pneumonia,

pneumatic

mb, lm

[m]

lamb, climb, bomb, comb, tomb; calm, palm, salmon

ps

[s]

psalm, pseudonym, psychologist, psychiatrist

rh

[r]

rhapsody, rhetoric, rheumatism, rhythm, rhyme

wr

[r]

wrap, wreck, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, write, wrong

Letters in the
suffix

Sounds

Examples

ti, ci, si, su

[sh]

nation, patient, special, vicious, pension, Asia, sensual,

pressure

si, su

[zh]

vision, fusion, Asia, usual, visual, measure, pleasure